Noobs Guide

Hey.. lets start with some noobs guide over RA 3. Here r some:

Paradigm shift – “Rushing” Is Playing Normally

What is a paradigm? A paradigm is a way of thinking. It’s a fundamental construct of basic ideas. An example would be the practice of eastern medicine, where they believe healing is achieved through the health of “chi” hotspots in the body. Western medicine believes in chemicals, surgery, etc. Different ways of thinking about the same subject.

If you’re the type of player who looks at a game as either “rushing” or “non-rushing”, then you need to change your way of thinking. The first step is to stop referring to attacks as being “rushes”. “Rushing” is actually the normal way to play Red Alert 3. What is abnormal is not attacking your opponent for several minutes while you build up a big army or a big base, often building multiple defensive structures arbitrarily without even knowing you need to build them or where to place them.

How to Play Normally

Presumably if you’ve made it this far, you’ve accepted the above to be true on some level and can tolerate the condescending tone of this guide. If you’re still operating under the assumption that rushing is lame, or takes no skill, or has no strategy, then what you’re about to read will be of little value to you since you will probably dismiss it as being a “cheap” or “lame” or “not fun” way to play. This section is not meant to convince you otherwise, but rather, explain how to stop losing to aggressive players.

Part 1: Scout
The first and most important step in learning how to counter aggressive players is to scout them and see what they’re doing. Build a barracks first, always. As soon as the game starts, build a barracks. You don’t need power as your MCV provides enough to cover the barracks. So start with the barracks, and then make two or three scouts (dogs, bears, or burst drones). Send these scouts to your opponent’s base using different paths. This will help ensure that at least one gets to your opponent’s base to see what they’re doing.Figure 1: The three distinct scouting areas and paths to take on Cabana Republic

You can’t effectively stop an aggressive attack without knowing what your opponent is attacking you with. It could be Stingrays, it could be Vindicators, it could be IFVs, Sickles, or Tengus, it could even be massive amounts of infantry. Without scouting, you will simply have no idea what you should be building.

Part 2: Units First, Base Second
If you’re constantly losing to aggressive (i.e. normal) players, it’s probably because you have fewer units than they do at the moment you are attacked. This means there is something wrong with the way you built your base. For whatever reason, you built the wrong buildings in the wrong order, which prevented you from getting units early on. (It probably doesn’t need to be said, but what defines “wrong” in this case is simply the fact that it resulted in you losing the game. The right thing results in a win, the wrong thing results in a loss. And yes, that means there are right and wrong strategies. Not every strategy is created equal). A lot of passive “no-rush” players tend to build an entire base, replete with walls, defenses, power plants, tech structures, and all sorts of things that makes the player feel like the mayor of a city rather than a field commander. This is wrong. Why? Because buildings are useless if you have no units to stop your opponent from destroying them.

If you build those buildings in that order, as quickly as you can, you’ve got all the tools you need to stop an aggressive player. Next you need to know how to use those tools. It should be noted that the units you decide to buy should vary depending on what you scout. But for the sake of simplicity, just build 3-4 Sickles, IFVs, or Tengus.

Sure, making walls and defenses might be effective against someone who is "rushing" you with basic units, but now you have a lot of money that you've spent on walls and defenses and they can't help you attack your opponent. Meanwhile your opponent will be able to expand and take over the map, and you won't have the units to stop him. Turtling is a bad idea. Period.

Terror Drones

Terror Drones are a terror to have running around the battlefield against you. With some basic micro techniques and a couple of the right units described here, you'll be able to effectively counter Terror Drones. If with your scouting, you find out that your opponent has made a couple of Terror Drones, you will have a couple of opportunities to get rid of them. You can either try to intercept them before they reach your Ore Collectors, stop them right before they enter your Ore Collectors, or repair your Ore Collector to remove the Terror Drone.
Anti Infantry Interception

Each army has sufficient early game anti-infantry to deal with a Terror Drone threat. You will most likely see Terror Drones early game, before you even have a chance to tech to tier two. Don't worry about needing anything expensive or high tech to kill a Terror Drone. They are highly vulnerable to anti-infantry weapons, so a couple shots from the most basic units will kill one. Below are the best counters to Terror Drones at tier one.
Allies
• Peacekeeper - Two will one shot a TD
• Riptide ACV - Really only viable if going for Riptide harassment
• Dolphin - Will one shot a TD
Soviets
• Conscript - A cheap counter, but shouldn't be necessary with Sickles available
• Sickles - Should be main counter to TDs for Soviets
Empire
• Ore Collector - Secondary ability will kill an approaching TD if switched early enough
• Imperial Warrior - Not really the most effective counter to TDs
• Mecha Tengu - Depending on BO used, might be out a little late to stop a TD
Secondary Abilities

Ore Collectors have secondary abilities that are very effective against Terror Drones. The Soviet's ability is a must use, because it makes it impossible for a Terror Drone to enter an Ore Collector. Although this ability shuts down harvesting operations, if you lost an Ore Collector, you wouldn't be harvesting anyway.

The Empire's Ore Collector's secondary ability is switching to a short ranged weapon that is incredibly strong against Terror Drones. If you switch to the secondary mode before the Terror Drone enters range, the Ore Collector will easily kill any Terror Drone trying to infect it. Beware of the Terror Drone's Electrostasis Ray, because a Terror Drone won't need to get in the gun's range to disable it.

Repairing Ore Collectors

In order to salvage any Ore Collectors that have been infected by Terror Drones, you must send them to your War Factory (Allies), Mecha Bay (Empire), or Crusher Crane (Soviets - late game). As the Allies or Empire, it's important to place your War Factory in an easily accessible location, within reach of both Refinery/Ore Nodes.

Although its good to have a forward War Factory, ideal building placement is between the two primary Ore Nodes, so that an Ore Collector can make it there in time to be repaired.

Scouting

Red Alert 3 has three levels of ‘Tech Tiers’ within the game that unlock more advanced / powerful units, and structures. Falling to far behind in the tech tree will make life incredibly tough, and attempting to catch back up when your enemy is bombarding you with more advanced units is easier said than done, especially versus a top competitor, that won’t let an advantage such as that slip easy.

Being able to identify what tech tier your opponent is at during the game is extremely important in knowing what to expect from your foe.
You should be aiming to have your opponent scouted as much as possible so you are able to plan accordingly, and counter what he has.
Scouting is also fundamental to finding out what tech level your enemy is currently on.

Soviets progress through the tech tree by building a certain structure, namely the Super Reactor for tier 2, and the Battle Lab for tier 3, so you only need to scout and keep an eye out for these two buildings, but for the Allies and Empire it’s a little different.

Empire advances the tree by purchasing the next level at that specific production structure; meaning if you upgrade your Dojo, only that specific Dojo will be at the next tier.

The Allies purchase their next tech level at the MCV / Prospector, though only structures within the MCV or Prospector build radius are affected, meaning that if you have an expansion you need to buy the next tier again at the Prospector so the buildings there will be able to build more powerful units to.

So how do you find out your opponent’s tech tier if his faction is the Allies or Empire?
It’s a lot simpler than you would think, and all it takes is some basic scouting and awareness skills.
Both the Allies and the Empire have little icons on their production structures that indicate the current tech tier the building is working under.

Example: The three tiers of the Empire Dojo

Here you can see that for every tier the Dojo advances, one of the blocks on the icon light up.
Thus one block for tier 1, two for tier 2, and three blocks lit up for tier 3.

Soviet Build Order

The Soviets are arguably the easiest and most straight forward faction to play in Red Alert 3. If you’re just starting out, it’s recommended you start with Soviets. They’re a well-rounded, powerful faction, with few weaknesses.

Strengths
Very straight forward teching system, powerful and flexible harassment units, flexible and powerful early game naval units, the strongest & most flexible main battle tank, a powerful air force. Bears have significantly more health than dogs, making them great counters to infantry.

Weaknesses
Cannot repair units from the War Factory, Airfield or Naval yard. They require a $1500 Crusher Crane, making it hard for them to preserve units to keep them alive in the early game.
A Basic Build Order & Strategy To Get You Started

That is the basic order in which you should produce your structures, and you should have enough money to do so without much, if any interruption. This is not the only build order to use as Soviets, but it’s a very standard and “safe” one. It gives you decent money, and lets you get units early in case your opponent rushes or plays aggressively

Never Forget To Scout:

Use your two bears to scout your opponent right away. Send one near their oil, send the other in the water to the south of their base. See what they’re up to. You will have to adapt depending on what you see!.

Send your two terror drones into the water. Put one in the Electro-stasis ray mode, and keep the other in normal mode. Use them to harass your opponent’s harvesters while you keep him busy with your Sickles.

From here, you may choose to expand your income if your opponent is camping with defenses, you may tech up if he is using a similar build order, or you may continue producing units and some defense if he is rushing. It all depends on what you see him doing.

Tesla Trooper – Heavy anti-vehicle infantry. Use against most vehicles, infantry, and structures.

Engineer – Capture/repair. Use to capture derricks, enemy buildings, or repair your own buildings. The engineer has a shotgun, good for taking out a dog or bear that is about to kill it.

Natasha – Commando unit. Use against structures, infantry, and high profile vehicles such as Apocalypse Tanks, and King Oni (snipe them with secondary ability)

If you snipe an Apocalypse Tank with Natasha, put a conscript in it and take it for yourself. It can turn the tide of a battle dramatically!

Terror drone – Amphibious scout/harassment. Use against tanks, unarmed transports, harvesters, and various other things.

Bullfrog – Amphibious transport/anti-air. Use against aircraft. Transport units and “eject” them near your opponent’s base.

Sickle – Anti-infantry. Use against all forms of infantry, terror drones, and other lightly armored early game vehicles.

Hammer Tank – Main battle tank. Use against other tanks, light armored vehicles, and structures, including basic defenses.

V4 – Artillery. Use against structures, clumps of units, and high tech defenses.

Apocalypse Tank – Heavy anti-vehicle. Use against anything that it is smaller than it is. It will kill it. We promise. Be sure to run over infantry instead of firing at them, and be wary of Terror Drones.

Sputnik – Expansion unit. Deploys in an area to give you ground control.

Empire of The Rising Sun

The Empire of the Rising Sun is the most radically different faction in Red Alert 3. It has a very unique building and teching system, and some of its units transform to take on totally new roles. The Empire is also relatively macromanagement heavy at the start of the game. This faction is recommended for more slightly advanced players, or players looking for something different.

Strengths
Extremely flexible building and expanding system and flexible units. Terrain is not an issue for the Empire. Burst drones are arguably the best and most versatile scouts in the game. The empire is the only faction with Amphibious tanks, and in patch 1.03 of the beta, does not even need a factory to build them.

Weaknesses
The Empire has the least flexible teching system. Unlike the Allies or Soviets who can simultaneously upgrade all production buildings with a single tech purchase, the Empire must upgrade structures individually. It must therefore carefully choose which structures to upgrade. What’s more is losing one of those structures means that you’ve lost the tech, and must re-tech a new production facility to gain it back. Nano building cores are also very vulnerable to being killed on their way to their location. It’s very easy to lose a $2500 refinery before it’s been deployed. The Empire’s lack of a ground-scout also means that it can’t protect its engineers as easily, nor intercept its opponent’s engineers that may be trying to capture oil.

That is the basic order in which you should produce your structures. You will end up having to wait for money to come in before you can build your vehicle factory. The advantage here is that due to the build speed of nanocores, you can effectively build two refineries at the same time.

If you attach your burst drones to your enemy’s harvesters, it will slow down your opponent’s income rate substantially, and you’ll still be able to see their base

(Shinobi Ability:
Power Plant – Disables power for 30 seconds
Refinery – Steals 2,000 credits from your opponent. Always gives 2,000 credits to you even if your opponent doesn’t have 2,000 credits.
MCV/Conyard – Lets you see what that structure sees, permanently. Disables radar for 60 seconds.
Production building – Disables it for 30 seconds
Tech building – Sabotages any T3 units being produced in a 30 second time frame)

Engineer – Capture/repair. Use to capture derricks, enemy buildings, or repair your own buildings. The engineer can sprint to avoid trouble.

Yuriko Omega – Commando unit. Use against structures, infantry, and aircraft. Lethal against all, at range.

Mecha Tengu/Jet Tengu – Amphibious/airborne scout/harassment. Use against infantry, harvesters, and other lightly armored vehicles. In secondary mode, use against aircraft.

Sudden Transport – Amphibious transport. Click a target to disguise your transport as the targeted unit. Makes it impossible to attack without force firing. Defenses and other units will not auto-acquire it.

Tsunami Tank – Amphibious main battle tank. Use against other tanks, light armored vehicles, and structures, including basic defenses. Also useful against surface ships.

StrikerVX/ChopperVX – Anti-air, anti-ground. Use against aircraft in primary mode, use against vehicles and structures in secondary mode.

Wave Force Artillery – Artillery. Use against structures, clumps of units, and high tech defenses.

King Oni – Heavy anti-vehicle. The (American) football player from hell. Use it’s laser eyes against all vehicles, and then blitz your opponent by running in a straight line, trampling anything that gets in its way.

Harvester – Collector. Secondary ability gives it a weapon which is perfect for countering Terror Drones, and adding a bit of extra defense against harassment.

Yari Minisub – Anti-ship/anti-submarine. Use against other submarines and surface ships. Kamikaze attack as a last ditch effort. Also good against naval structures.

Seawing/Skywing – Anti-air/anti-ground. Use against air units when in the water, use against ground or ships when in flight mode.

Naginata Cruiser – Ant-ship. Use against other surface ships, and capital ships. Very good against naval structures.

Allies

The Allies are the middle of the road faction. They’re probably the most similar to “traditional” C&C factions, but don’t quite have something as convenient as a Tengu or Sickle that they can pop out of the gate. Their IFVs must be combined with infantry units to create maximum effect. This takes a bit of practice and getting used to.

Strengths
Quickest teching faction. Only $1500/15 seconds to get to tier 2. The Allies also have the best mid-game anti-infantry in the form of a Spy + IFV combo, which turns into a sniper IFV. The sniper IFV also takes out terror drones easily. They’re the only faction with mobile repairing, and they have the best air units when upgraded with Advanced Aeronautics. Allies are the only faction that can instantly deploy defensive turrets. Dogs are faster than bears, allowing Allies to scout soviets before soviets scout allies.

Weaknesses
Relatively weak early game navy, though Riptides can be effective. No good early game anti-terror drone capability unless you make Riptides. Peacekeeper IFVs are “ok”, but not reliable. Very limited teching options. They need to maintain ground control with the structure they upgraded tech with, in order to preserve tech for any buildings that are within that radius. Makes it harder to move their MCV, and if they tech with a deployed prospector and that prospector is destroyed, they lose any tech for any structures in that area. A Basic Build Order & Strategy To Get You Started

That is the basic order in which you should produce your structures. You should have enough money to get the IFVs and Heightened Clearance without having to wait much. The key here is what you do with the units you’ve made after you’ve researched Heightened Clearance.

First off, put the spy and engineer into the IFVs. This gives you a sniper IFV and repair IFV. Next place one of your three Guardian tanks into its target painter mode. This will give all of your units a +100% firepower boost against whatever target is being painted with the targeting laser from the support Guardian. This means your two attack Guardians have the firepower of FOUR attack Guardians.

You know have a well rounded attack force that can deal with terror drones, infantry, air units, and other vehicles. The key here is to keep your IFVs alive. They are crucial. If you lose these, you can’t fight off air units, terror drones, or infantry, and your Guardians are in trouble. Guardians are cheaper to replace than engineer or spy IFVs. They’re also slower, and can’t run away like the IFVs can.

Spy – Infiltration. Cannot attack unless in an IFV. Use secondary ability to bribe units to join your cause.
(Spy Abilities:
Power Plant – Disables power for 30 seconds
Refinery – Steals 2,000 credits from your opponent. Always gives 2,000 credits to you even if your opponent doesn’t have 2,000 credits.
MCV/Conyard – Lets you see what that structure sees, permanently. Disables radar for 60 seconds.
Production building – Disables it for 30 seconds
Tech building – Sabotages any T3 units being produced in a 30 second time frame)

Engineer – Capture/repair. Use to capture derricks, enemy buildings, or repair your own buildings. The engineer can build a medical tent to heal nearby infantry.

Tanya – Commando unit. Use against structures, infantry, and vehicles.

IFV – Harassment, anti-air. Use against aircraft, combine with infantry to fight a variety of other unit types. Most useful for harassment.

Mirage Tank – “Heavy” anti-vehicle. Small and fast, but very powerful. Use against main battle tanks, infantry, and structures.
Prospector – Collector. Secondary ability allows it to deploy to give ground control.

Apollo Fighter – Air superiority. Use against all aircraft.

Vindicator Bomber – Ground attack. Use against anything on the ground. Ineffective against harvesters.

Crycopter – Support. Does not do damage. Use it to freeze units, and then use another unit to kill the frozen target in one shot. Secondary ability shrinks units, causing them to do less damage, but making them harder to kill without anti-infantry vehicles.

Century Bomber – Heavy bomber. Use against structures, large clusters of units.

Dolphin – Anti-ship/anti-submarine. Use against other submarines and surface ships, as well as naval structures.

Hydrofoil – Anti-air. Use against all air units.

Assault Destroyer – Amphibious anti-ship. Use against other surface ships, and capital ships. Can go on land and attack units.

Carrier – Siege ship. Use against structures, other surface ships, and vehicles within striking distance. EMP secondary ability disables structures and units for a considerable amount of time.